Breaker blocks



April 16, 1968 H, K Ross ETAL 3,377,831

BREAKER BLOCKS Filed Dec. '7, 1965 United States Patent 3,377,831 M BREAKER BLOCKS Horace Kenneth Ross, WalsallQa'nd Ronald Frost, Erdington, Birmingham, England, assignors to T. I. Stainless Tubes Limited, Birmingham, England Filed Dec. 7, 1965, Ser. No. 512,147 1 Claim. (Cl. 72-248) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to a breaker block for use with rolling mills, shearing machines, crank-operated presses and like machines for the purpose of limiting the loads which can be applied to such machines. The object of the invention is to provide an improved construction of breaker block.

In accordance with the invention, there is provided a breaker block which comprises a pair of body members and a disc member, one of said body members having a recess and the other body member having a projecting portion which projects towards said recess but which is normally separated therefrom by said disc member, the arrangement being such that in use the breaker block will be subjected to pressure which will tend to move said projecting portion towards said recess so that if such pressure becomes unduly high then the disc member will shear to permit the projecting portion to enter into the recess and thereby relieve the pressure.

Conveniently, the disc member is formed from steel (commonly known as ENS) having the following composition.

Iron, balance.

The invention will now be more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein FIGURE 1 is a sectional elevation of one example of a breaker block constructed in accordance with the present invention and FIGURE 2 (which illustrates one application of the invention) is a part-sectional view of a rolling mill utilising a pair of breaker blocks each formed as shown in FIGURE 1.

Referring firstly to FIGURE 1 there is shown therein a breaker block which comprises two body members and 11 together with a disc member 12, each of these parts being of circular configuration in cross section.

One of said body members 10 is provided on one side with an axially extending cylindrical wall 13 and is also formed with a central circular aperture 14. The other body member 11 is formed with a cylindrical flange portion 15 having a diameter slightly smaller than the internal diameter of the aforementioned cylindrical wall 13 3,377,831 Patented Apr. 16, 1968 so that the flange portion can enter into the space bounded by the wall. I

The body member 11 is also provided with an axially extending projecting portion 16 which is of circular cross section and which has a diameter equal or substantially equal to the diameter of the adjacent end of the aforementioned aperture 14 formed in the first mentioned body member.

The disc member 12 (which may be conveniently formed from steel having a composition as set out above) has an external diameter which is larger than the diameter of the projecting portion 16 of said other body member and said disc member is conveniently located in a step 17 formed at one end of the aperture 14. In addition the disc member andsaid other body member may each be formed with a circular central aperture as indicated by reference numerals 18 and 19 in FIGURE 1.

With the breaker block as above described the disc member 12 normally prevents the projecting portion 16 of said other body member 11 from entering into the recess afiorded by the adjacent end of the aperture 14 formed in the first mentioned body member 10. In this position the end face of said projecting portion 16 will engage one end face of the disc member 12 and the breaker block can be placed in position in the rolling mill or other machine in which it is to be used so that in use pressure will be applied to the two body members 10 and 11 so as to tend to move the flange portion 15 of said other body member inwardly relative to the first mentioned body member. Thus as shown in FIGURE 2, two breaker blocks constructed as above described and indicated by reference numberals 20 and 21 are placed in a. rolling mill having a pair of rolls 22 and 23, a bed 24 and a head portion 25. The rolls are supported in bearings 26 at each side of the mill and the breaker blocks are positioned between the head portion 25 and the upper pair of bearings. Means are provided for adjusting the position of said hearings in order to obtain'the required separation of the rolls to accommodate workpieces (such as a tube 27) of various diameters and such means includes a pair of rods 28 and 29 which extend respectively through the passages formed by the apertures 14, 18 and 19 in each breaker-block. The disc member of each breaker block will normally resist the pressure applied by the rolls but if the pressure becomes unduly high then the disc will shear allowing the two body members 10 and 11 of each breaker block to telescope relative to each other so as thereby to relieve the pressure. If desired, each disc member may be prestressed by a load which is slightly greater than the normally expected working load (but well below the shear load) in order to indent the disc member and thus prevent further deformation of the disc member during normal rolling, thereby ensuring that the correct size of the rolled product is maintained. Such pre-stressing will also assist in ensuring that the disc member shears cleanly if an unduly high pressure is reached rather than that said member should be firstly deformed and then broken unevenly.

Furthermore the two body members 10 and 11 may be located relative to each other for ease of assembly and transportation by a plurality of circumferentially spaced axially extending bolts 30 as seen in FIGURE 1.

Having thus described our invention what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A breaker block comprising a first body member having an aperture, a disc member extending across one end of said aperture in the first body member, and a second body member having a projecting portion which projects towards said aperture in the first body member and which engages that side of the disc member remote from the first body member, the disc member and the second 3 4 body member having apertures which are aligned with References Cited the aperture of the first body member to provide a pas- UNITED STATES PATENTS sage through the breaker block, said projecting portion of the second body member being adapted to enter the aperture of the first body member if in use an unduly 5 high load is applied to the breaker block sufficient to ef- RICHARD HERBST Pnmmy Exammer' feet shearing of the disc member. A. RUDERMAN, Assistant Examiner.

2,612,798 10/1952 Bailey 72-248 

